HP Omen X Review

Table of Contents

Introduction, Design & Features

Buying an OEM desktop always seems to trail a set of attached strings.

A given model might have enough performance but lack aftermarket upgradability. Another model might have the upgradability, but its case may not offer a friendly working space. Yet another model may lack factory customization, leaving you to pick from a few pre-configured models that may not align with your needs and budget. And last, there’s the sinking after-purchase feeling that you bought a big-box PC that really isn’t on the same level as custom builds offered by specialists such as AVADirect and Digital Storm, or something you could have built yourself.

HP aims to address scenarios like these with its new Omen X gaming desktop. This tower was designed from the case up to take on the aftermarket. Almost as if to prove its point, HP is offering the case for purchase by itself, should you want to take the true DIY route. It’s very unlike a big-brand PC maker to do something like this.

The case is far from inexpensive at $549, discounted from $599 as of this writing. That’s an extraordinary amount of money for just a case, considering you can get a very high-quality aftermarket chassis like the In Win 805 for $200.

The least-expensive Omen X configuration we found starts at $1,599. The good news is that the configurations are factory-customizable, including the processor, graphics card, memory, and storage, and even the power supply. The competing Lenovo Ideacentre Y900 and Acer Predator G6 don’t offer customization like this from the factory, though the Alienware Aurora R5 does. All three of those were priced right around the HP, with the Acer commanding the most at $2,299 with a near-identical configuration. In other words, the price of the Omen X’s case doesn’t seem to have much effect on the relative pricing of the PC as a whole.

The Omen sub-brand is a throwback to HP’s acquisition of custom PC maker VoodooPC back in 2006. The Omen X’s case pays homage to Voodoo and the epic machines that the company used to produce. There’s even an inscription on the inside of the case that mentions its Voodoo ancestry.

The Omen X isn’t the first fruit of the Voodoo acquisition. That honor goes to the memorable HP Blackbird 002 back in 2007, one of the heaviest desktops we had ever tested. HP subsequently released the smaller HP Firebird two years later. But since then, it’s been quiet in acknowledging the Voodoo influence in its desktops. The circa-2015 HP Envy Phoenix 860st didn’t quite qualify, as it was more or less an upscale mainstream tower with extra-powerful components.

This new Omen X is, on the other hand, a true successor. From its radically angled all-metal design to its nine-zone customizable RGB case lighting, this beast is out to make a statement. Just don’t plan on putting it in a confined area—in addition to weighing 62 pounds as we’re reviewing it, the Omen X has about twice the footprint of a normal mid-tower.

Design

It’s safe to say that hiding the Omen X would be a futile exercise. This desktop has an enormous footprint due to its shape and 45-degree orientation.

Angled as it is, the cube-like tower has a width of 19.9 inches, whereas a traditional mid-tower is usually eight to nine inches wide. Its 20.3-inch height is also just as tall as a traditional mid-tower, if not an inch or so taller, while its 16-inch length is slightly shorter than we expected.

HP says the Omen X’s angled orientation makes it easier to work inside the chassis. We agree; there’s no need to lay this desktop on its side to swap components, as you’d typically need to do with a mid-tower. As a matter of fact, there’s really no other way to situate this tower.

We think the angled orientation of the Omen X looks great, but it would be nice to have a choice as to whether it has to sit like this. Unfortunately, the stand that props the system up at an angle is permanently affixed to the case. You can't just place the PC on one of its flat sides.

On a practical note, the angled orientation does lend a bit more airflow to the power-supply chamber in the bottom of the desktop, as there are vent holes on either side of the bottom corner. But even if the chassis were just a cube sitting flat on a desk, some tall rubber feet could still let air under the desktop. All in all, we don’t see why this desktop couldn’t have been made with the stand as a detachable piece. It would, at the very least, be easier to transport that way. As it stands (literally), you had better keep the Omen X’s shipping box if you want to tote this system to LAN parties. There just aren't many good ways to carry it.

The Omen X isn’t a light desktop. The case alone weighs 40.1 pounds, while our pre-built review unit tipped the scale at 62.2 pounds. For comparison, the Lenovo Ideacentre Y900 mid-tower was 33 pounds as we reviewed it. The bulk of the Omen X’s weight comes from its metal construction. Aside from the cooling vents on the front of the case, you’d be hard-pressed to find a non-metal part of the thing.

The entire desktop is blacked-out, including the interior. The latter is especially appreciated, as a bare-steel interior is an instant reminder that you didn’t get the best-quality case. It’s too often that we see major brands craft a great-looking exterior, but leave the actual inside of the case without a finish.

The front of the Omen X has nine separate lighting zones. Each of these can be set to one of 16.8 million colors, or the entire RGB spectrum.

The preinstalled Omen Control software is very basic, but is intuitive to use and allows you to create your own profiles. We especially liked the system monitor preset, which designates the four squares on the front of the desktop to each showing a different color depending on the processor and graphics-card usage and temperature.

The lighting looks sharp and vibrant. The brightness can also be adjusted or turned off using the software. The ability to turn off the lighting is important, as you’d otherwise have a hard time sleeping in the same room as this desktop while it’s running.

Features

The Omen X does well in terms of port variety, but not necessarily in placement.

For starters, there are no ports on the front of the desktop. You’ll need to reach around to the upper right side to access its first bank of ports and buttons. These include the microphone jack, an audio combo jack, a pair of USB Type-A 3.0 ports, a pair of USB Type-C 3.1 ports, and the SD-card reader. The second USB Type-A port is powered, for charging devices while the desktop is in standby mode or off. The power button is to the left of the port bank.

The problem with the placement of those ports? They sit at a 45-degree angle, due to the desktop’s orientation. The cord for anything you plug in over there will stick out and cascade down the side of the desktop. This looks awkward and can spoil the desktop’s overall clean look. And unless the Omen X is sitting on your left, you’ll have to get up to find these ports. We’re not lazy, but putting a few of the ports on the front of the desktop would have helped alleviate this, especially the headphone jack. If you use a set of wired headphones, that’s at least one cable you’ll have dangling off the right side of the case.

The slim, laptop-style optical drive is on the bottom edge of the right side, effectively jutting at an angle out the bottom of the case when the tray is extended. It was a DVD burner in our review unit, but a Blu-ray reader is available as an option.

We think its placement is a little odd (strike that, a lot odd). You can see it pointed downward in the lower half of the image above. That said, it’s not like the optical drive will see frequent use by most users.

The remaining connectivity is on the rear of the desktop. Here you’ll find the optical audio out, six USB Type-A 3.0 ports, S/PDIF, and the Ethernet jack. The HDMI port is blocked off on the motherboard in favor of the video-out ports on the dedicated graphics card. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition in our review unit has three full-size DisplayPort connectors, one HDMI port, and a legacy DVI-D.

The Omen X's internals are split into three chambers. The top chamber of the desktop holds the motherboard and most of the components, while the lower chamber holds the power supply, and the rightmost chamber the 3.5-inch drive bays.

Removing the panel on the top of the desktop is a tool-less exercise. The release tab on the rear unlocks the panel, while the eject button pushes it loose...

Removal was mostly straightforward, though guiding the door back into place took some concentration. The panel won’t close properly unless you first get the tabs at its lower edge firmly in place.

We like the custom aftermarket look of the red-and black-themed interior. The motherboard is blacked-out, and not green or blue as we usually see in big-name desktops. Its four DIMM slots for memory are an eye-catching red, as are power-supply cables and liquid-cooling hoses. The cabling could be more concisely tied off, but the interior overall looks organized. The HP Omen logo on the processor’s waterblock is another nice touch. The interior looks good enough that we wish the side panel had a window to show everything off.

There’s plenty of room to work inside the chassis, and the angled nature of the Omen X makes doing so slightly more comfortable, as you don't have to hunch over to peer inside the edges of the chassis. You can actually sit at your desk with the Omen X open in front of you and work comfortably.

The motherboard tray can also be completely removed, making the interior one large empty space, like so...

Naturally, you’ll need to have all the components in that upper chamber removed before that becomes possible. This chambered design does highlight the fact that, if you plan to build your own system in this chassis, you’ll absolutely need to start by installing the power supply. Once that’s done, you’ll then have to pull the necessary cables through the dedicated holes in the motherboard tray before screwing it in.

Getting to any cables you left in the lower chamber after installing the motherboard tray is likely to be a nightmare, as there’s really no way to get fingers or tools down there to fish them out. In our review unit, HP fortunately seems to have pulled all the available cables through to the upper chamber, and tied them off as necessary. On the plus side, this chambered setup very effectively hides unused cables.

The right side has the four swappable 3.5-inch drive bays. The outer door of each one swings to the left with a slight effort, like so...

Uninstalling a drive is accomplished by sliding the switch, and then pulling the fabric tab to slide out the drive caddy. The first bay was populated by a 2TB Seagate drive in our review unit. The empty caddies have rubber grommets in each of the four drive screw locations, but extra screws weren’t included.

Speaking of spare parts, the Omen X hides 15 screws and a wrench for them behind the lower front tile on the front of the desktop. Stick your fingernail in the top corner and gently pull the panel free. The screws here don’t fit the 3.5-inch drive caddies, but they can be used to mount other components inside the desktop.

Components

The Omen X is customizable from the factory through HP’s online store. As we mentioned, you can even buy just its case and add your own components if you have the DIY bug.

At the time of writing, baseline Omen X configurations started at $1,699 with an Intel Core i7-6700 (non-"K") processor, AMD Radeon RX 480 graphics, 8GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. (Note: The Omen X has since been updated to offer the marginally faster Intel "Kaby Lake" quad-core processors, such as the Core i7-7700K.)

As tends to be a theme with high-end desktops, the Omen X doesn’t offer the best value in its starting configuration. Customizing it with higher-end components improves its overall value proposition. Just be careful which configuration you start with; we noticed the prices for very similar loadouts on HP’s site could vary by 10 percent or more, depending on the starting configuration. Our advice is to try all of them as you play with the configuration tools.

The $2,049 configuration we're reviewing significantly bumps up the baseline model's performance. Our model has the faster unlocked Core i7-6700K processor, double the memory (16GB), twice the hard drive space (2TB), a lightning-fast 256GB Samsung PCI Express-bus SSD with NVMe protocol support, and a top-shelf Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition graphics card. For $350 more than the entry-level configuration, those upgrades are a no-brainer. Hence, if you spend more, the value actually improves. Your shopping mileage may vary. Again, you'll have to experiment with the starting configurations to see which one ends up offering the best value for the particular configuration you choose.

Despite the unlocked nature of our review unit’s Core i7-6700K processor, we were disappointed that the Omen X’s motherboard has no overclocking support whatsoever. It would be kind to say its American Megatrends BIOS offers just the bare essentials. The competing Alienware Aurora R5, Lenovo Ideacentre Y900, and Acer Predator G6 all offer processor overclocking when equipped with multiplier-unlocked processors.

The Omen X has a 600-watt power supply in its base configuration, an ample amount of wattage for just about any conceivable setup outside of a dual-graphics-card rig. If the latter summarizes your plans, HP offers a 1,300-watt power supply as an upgrade; that was what was in our review unit. We think it’s beyond overkill with our single-GPU configuration, but it does carry an 80 Plus Gold rating, and it gives free reign for installing just about anything short of a flux capacitor later on. (For the latter, you’ll obviously need a plutonium-powered nuclear reactor.)

You might want to do a little window shopping before embarking on a DIY excursion with the Omen X's case. Shopping for parts online, we found the components in our Omen X were roughly $1,700 without a case. Given that HP wants $549 for the Omen X’s case alone, and that our review unit was priced at $2,049 including all those components, you can see why it might be better to just buy it pre-configured.

Even though we think the case is priced into the stratosphere, we're impressed that HP is offering just the chassis, as big-name companies tend not to do this. System builder Maingear is even offering its own custom desktops based on HP's Omen X case, custom painting and all.

Thermals

The Omen X’s case design helps thermal management by separating components into their own chambers. The top half of the desktop is the largest chamber, housing the motherboard, processor, and up to two graphics cards. The bottom chamber houses the power supply, while a right-side chamber is home to the storage bays.

For the top chamber, a front-mounted 120mm fan acts as an intake, while a 120mm fan attached to the processor’s liquid-cooling radiator serves as the exhaust. The intake fan pushes air directly at the two PCI Express x16 slots. The idea with this arrangement is that the warm air will rise and be extracted by the processor’s fan.

The lower chamber, dominated by the power supply, had the whopping 1,300-watt model we mentioned, which should provide more than enough power for just about any set of components you could conceivably fit in this case. It vents air out the back of the desktop via its internal 120mm fan.

The storage chamber has its own 120mm exhaust. The negative pressure it generates pulls air in through the grated front of the chamber, and inevitably through other perforations and spaces in the desktop. Pulling air into this chamber versus pushing it makes sense; if this were a push setup, the first storage drive would probably block most of the incoming air, and thus the other drives might not be as well-cooled. On that topic, it’s notable that all the grates on the desktop appear to have dust covers in place. We like the simple slide-out dust grate on the top chamber’s intake fan.

The Omen X was whisper-quiet in all of our testing, including a 30-minute gaming session running the 2016 game Rise of the Tomb Raider. We had to put our ears within a foot or so of the desktop to hear anything.

The Core i7-6700K processor in our review unit topped out at 84 degrees C during the gaming session. That’s a bit on the high side for our preferences, especially at stock clock speeds, though this isn’t the warmest-running gaming desktop we’ve tested. The processor appeared to run just fine at this temperature with no ill effects in our benchmarks. That said, there’s no practical thermal overhead for any kind of processor overclocking, but that's moot as the Omen X’s motherboard doesn’t allow for overclocking, anyway. Judging by the space at the top where the included radiator resides, you could install a 240mm or larger radiator here, if desired.

The GeForce GTX 1080 reached 83 degrees C during our gaming session, a normal peak operating temperature for the Founders Edition model. The card had no trouble maintaining its boost clock. The Omen X’s intake fan directly in front of the graphics card certainly didn’t hurt its ability to keep cool. This intake fan would be even more important in a dual-graphics-card setup, which the Omen X is fully capable of accommodating. (All you need is money.)

Overall, we’d like to see slightly beefier processor cooling, but the Omen X otherwise has a fine cooling setup.